Remember how excited I was when I found that coupon online for an $8.88 haircut?

I haven’t had a haircut since.

It wasn’t a horrible haircut, one that would send me into hiding and searching for collections of hats and scarves to wear for the next month, but it was okay… It was even, but quite a bit shorter than I asked for, and really not meant for my hair type, but she did what I asked of her (and then some).

So is my hair down to my knees now? no. I still get it cut. In the bathroom. With scissors. By myself. FOR FREE.

I am letting my hair grow out just a little, but I do keep it neat and trim, and that includes a trim once a month or two, and trimming my bangs every few weeks. Those of us with bangs know that you can get them trimmed for a small fee (around $7 usually) but that can add up! Do that every 2 weeks and you spend $182 a year to have someone take off a quarter of an inch of fringe!

Do it yourself:
*you will need a sharp pair of scissors- ones meant for cutting hair are probably best, but I have this awesome pair of kid’s fiscars I got at a fabric store when I was 10 and they work perfectly.

*A mirror helps with the back of your hair.

*do not attempt to do fancy cuts without learning techniques. I just do a basic trim, and feather the ends. Everyone’s hair is different, every cut is different. I trim my boyfriend’s super curly hair, and it is much more forgiving than my baby fine strands.

*less is more. Especially with bangs. Really really short bangs can be cute, but not always. Always go slowly and evenly. You can always cut more off if it isn’t short enough.

*cleanup tip: take the rug out of the bathroom before starting. Spread a trash bag, newspaper, junk mail, etc. over the sink before starting and make sure your toothbrush is out of range of flying bits of hair. No one likes to brush their teeth with bits of hair.

*to wet or not to wet: I don’t personally- I have a better idea of how it will look afterwards if it is dry. I always wash my hair after trimming. Better yet: shower afterwards to wash all little hairs away.

*research before you start: I found several online sources of amateur hair cutting advice like this, this and this. Take what you need, and experiment (gently).

FREE! you can’t get better than that.

Boy have I been busy. It’s been almost an entire year since I got laid off (July of the summer of 2008) and a month or so I finally started a job. Hundreds of resumes emailed and handed out, hundreds of responses to job ads, more even to companies not advertising their employment searches (perhaps I should have omitted the line: “I know you want to hire me- so do it! Hire me! Do it now or else!”
And so one lonely little craigslist ad urged me to respond, and what do you know, they actually called back. I think in the last year I maybe got 5 responses, and out of those, 2-3 interviews, all which never really went anywhere, for whatever reason.

So I had the interview! and I was late because I went to the wrong building! But I still got hired!

yay.
granted, all my co-workers are at least 10 years younger than me, and it is a minimum wage job at an amusement park, but hey. It’s something, and it might cover my rent for the month, and maybe a bite to eat here and there.

Working with the public, especially with such a diverse touristy public, is interesting. So far, I have gotten a marriage proposal by a gay guy, an offer to get me drunk (“I’ll bring you a beer- you need a beer don’t you? – I’m gonna go get you a beer”) and several very nice people enjoying their day getting sunburnt and paying five dollars for a salted pretzel.

The perks? I get discounts on park merchandise (um… yeah…) on food, and on other park admissions, including movie tickets. The employee area has a cafeteria, and the food is cheap. I’m talking $1.50 hamburgers. I don’t eat meat, but that is cheap! There are a few options for me, like salted pretzels and macaroni and cheese that looks a bit plastic-y, but for the most part, I bring a snack and save my dollars.

in other news-
HEDWIG and the Angry Inch is in town, and there are some cheap tickets available. I’m gonna skip it this time, but if you’re interested, here’s the link to the tickets. Such a good story. Love the music too. I used to have the soundtrack to that, wonder what happened to it….

This lady is my hero. She saved 97% on her grocery bill by using coupons.

I don’t know how she does it, but she has tons of coupons. The only coupons we can find here are for 50¢ off when you buy 5 jars of pickles. We don’t need that many pickles, and certainly spending $20 on pickles just for 50¢ off is ridiculous.

watch and wonder:

cnn story

The economic problems of today are affecting everyone. Even if you’re not affected, you know someone who is, and so therefore, you are affected.
So we have to ask, what got us here? Why is everything screwed up in the housing and financial sectors, why are my neighbors loosing their houses, and why is my bank on the brink of internal combustion?

Thanks to Jonathan Jarvis, we have a clear, visually appealing explanation.  (runs a bit over 10 minutes, but worth it) 

ah…

i see….

’twas greed….

These days, traveling is enough to send you spiraling into a lifetime of debt.

Since most of us are already in that position, let’s go traveling!

Destination: San Francisco

Airline tickets were free for us this time, due to August’s trip with a slew of bad management, cancelled flights, bad customer service, and hours of negotiating on the phone for reimbursement. Thank you Delta.  

Remember, when all else fails, when you spend hours on the phone, being transfered from one clueless employee to another, its always nice to do a executive email carpet bomb, and all will be well.

So with our free flight vouchers in hand, we planned ourselves a little trip to get out town for a while and scope out affordable places to live in San Francisco (I’ll explain that another time), with no fear of paying steep prices for airline travel.

Next we needed somewhere to rest our weary little heads when night falls.  
Hotels came to mind, as most citi-dwellers look down upon random travelers knocking on their doors looking for shelter.

Kayak.com does a nice job of rounding up hotel sites and giving you the cheapest rates (they do more than hotels, but I’ve never used them for anything but hotels).  They sent us to Orbitz with a great price on a boutique-like hotel, complete with 30% off winter special rates. So we had a great price for a decent hotel, near the center of San Francisco.

That’s not good enough!

On to the coupon sites, searching for hidden coupon codes to save us cash.

One of my favorites, and lesser known than coupons.com is RetailMeNot.com

With the coupon code for Orbitz.com, we saved an additional $75 total.

Now we have to figure out how to pack light to avoid Delta’s checked baggage fee.
That’s a checked baggage fee for your FIRST CHECKED BAGGAGE! 

sigh.

time to condense our goods to carryon luggage only…

Cheers to everyone who has been layed off this year. 

Plant Layoffs by James True

Christmas trees are expensive. The average price tops $40-for a tree. A dead tree.

The Ikea in San Diego solves this dilemma by offering trees for $20. You have your choice of heights ranging from 5-7 feet, AND, with the purchase of a tree, you get a $20 coupon to use later at Ikea on a purchase of $50 or more.
Basically, a free tree.  (you know you were going to go back and spend $50 at Ikea anyway…)

That’s a deal.

It starts today, and continues through Friday.  Saturday is a maybe, depending on if they have any trees left.

CAUTION:

Not all stores are participating. Supplies are limited, and they go fast!  Find a store near you to call and ask about their deal, and if they have any in stock.

UPDATE: Looks like San Diego may be the only one with the tree offer, and the coupons are not being handed out. Nope, no coupons this year, looks like I was misinformed by an Ikea employee.  But still, $20 for a tree is awesome.

My haircut went alright, she seemed a bit worried and spent the good part of an hour blow drying the back of my hair, snipping with scissors, wetting it down, snipping with scissors,  blow drying it, etc.

All in all, my hair is shorter, and while it’s not the greatest cut ever, it gives me something to work with.
On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being cheap and “you get what you pay for” quality, 10 being cheap and “holy cow, I need to do the got-a-good-deal dance,” my rating would be a 6.5. OK cut, cheap price, she did what I asked, and tried really hard to make it perfect, yet, I could tell she was not experienced.

Great Clips: OK-but-cheap Clips.

Well hello, and thank you for joining me on this cheaptastic voyage through the world of finding great deals, limiting consumer purchases, and being proud of being cheap while maintaining some dignity.

And what better time for a blog full of money-saving tips!  Many of us have lost our jobs; we are struggling to stay afloat financially, and we are feeling that depressing holiday pressure to buy expensive gifts for everybody we know. The biggest financial companies on Wall Street are crumbling around us, and the American car manufacturers are asking for our help. All this and a head of garlic is now 50¢. Inflation! No longer do we live in a time when garlic is 3 for a dollar. Times like these call for drastic measures.

Yes, I am cheap, but I find myself spending money like never before. It seems impossible not to. Groceries, phone bill, prescriptions, car insurance, gas… It all adds up, and when the usual steady income is interrupted, it can cause some serious freaking out.

So here I am, spreading tips on how I try to keep costs low, without sacrificing my health, without sacrificing too much of my general happiness.

I hope you enjoy this cheap little journey. Please feel free to add in your tips, comments, and views on any of the subjects we cover. You can always email me with suggestions anytime.

Enjoy!